STOPPING
ELECTRONICS FAILINGClick the photo to download a print quality copy of the
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Water has led to the failure of everything from a missile to an IC, from
a simple circuit board to an entire installation. Although seals and enclosures
are excellent at keeping liquid water out, many of them offer virtually
no barrier to water vapour - and it is often this that causes electronics
to fail.

To solve this problem, permeability
experts Versaperm Limited have launched a new way to measure this vapour
permeability easily, quickly and accurately. It works on seals, enclosures,
coatings, mastics and even finished products.
The Versaperm MK VI WVTR (Water Vapour Transmission) meter is quick, accurate
and simple to use. It is highly automated and can cope with several samples
at a time - and still give a reading in as little as 30 minutes for some
materials. The conventionally gravimetric measurement technique takes
several days and gives significantly less accurate and reproducible results.

The MK VI is accurate in the PPM (parts per million) or PPB (parts per
billion) range depending on the gas used. The instrument can be configured
to measure not just water vapour but most gaseous, including Hydrogen,
Helium, Hydrocarbons, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon.

As well as manufacturing the
instruments, Versaperm offers a water vapour permeability laboratory service
for companies that need to test samples on an irregular basis.